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KURDISTAN
IRAQ: Nawshirwan Mustafa:

The Voice
of the Opposition from Within

Known
as the "terrible child" of the Iraqi Kurdish national
movement, Nawshirwan Mustafa had risen to the highest
reachable position in Suleimania. He was a member of the
political bureau and deputy secretary general of the PUK
-- the secretary general being none other than Jalal Talabani,
who is at the same time president of the Republic of Iraq
and the lifelong head of PUK-- when he decided in February
2007 to resign and become a " simple militant ".
A simple militant who is publishing a newspaper, Rozhnama,
coupled with a popular web site, in which he says loudly
what many people dare not even whisper, and who is now
preparing to launch a satellite TV, KNNC (Kurdish News
Network Channel) to bring news, but " no
singing and dancing", he asserts with conviction.

"The time has come
to focus on internal issues", Nawshirwan Mustafa states
at his house in Suleimania. "But I am saying what I have
to say with a friendly voice. I am not in opposition.
I have good relations with both Jalal Talabani and Masoud
Barzani  head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party
(KDP). We all talk together. I am their friend, not their
ennemy. I want to make reforms in the government, the
parliament, and in the bureaucracy. It is better, when
there are problems, to discuss them".

Lack of services

The first challenge,
Nawshirwan Mustafa says, is the lack of services: the
Kurds have been their own rulers for 17 years, but they
still have certain issues to address. Currently a severe
shortage of electricity hampers Kurds from going about
their daily business. The government provides only about
one hour of electricity per day ; those who can afford
it, buy seven or eight hours of electricity from the owners
of private generators, others must manage without power.

Water is also an acute
problem, as demonstrated by the recent cholera epidemic
in Suleimania. There is also a severe shortage of housing.
Rents are skyrocketing, and young people cannot afford
to marry unless thy are prepared to live with their parents.
Infrastructural development is lagging behind and there
is a shortage of schools, even in big cities: "In Suleimania
we have schools running with four shifts. How is it possible
when the budget for the Kurdish region is 6 bn$ ", questions
Nawshirwan Mustafa, echoing a widely popular feeling.

Transparency

Another
problem, adds Nawshirwan Mustafa, is the lack of transparency
in the running of government affairs. "There is no transparency
on budgetary matters. Ordinary people do not know anything
about the budget of KDP and PUK or the budget for education.
What do people know about the oil contracts? And there
is no transparency on foreign affairs: nobody knows what
is going on between the Kurdish leaders and Bagdad, or
between the Kurdish leaders and the Americans".

"I know the budget,
because I was part of the leadership. I was one of them",
he notes, adding : "But I cannot tell you because
I do not want to make trouble. Again, I stress, I am not
the ennemy of Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani but I
do want them to make things public. It is in their favour
to do so. I want to instill in public opinion a real desire
for reform".

Corruption

Nawshirwan Mustafa
goes on to identify the most serious problem facing Kurdish
society as corruption. "I am not only speaking of bribery,
but also of cronyism and nepotism", he says, adding: "Unless
you are close to one of the parties (PUK and KDP), you
have no chance of being a minister or a deputy minister.
The parties are interfering in the media and the judiciary.
The judges are appointed by the parties. The parties control
everything in the society. We are in a totalitarian system,
like in the former Soviet bloc, or the Romania of old".

"Of course, I am proud
of what we have accomplished ; we have a government,
a parliament. But now is the right time to speak out about
our problems. The party is appointing everybody, from
village heads to the governors of the provinces, even
the heads of the universities," says Nawshirwan Mustafa,
echoing a grievance felt by much of the population, from
disfranchised young students to sceptical journalists.
He claims that even the acceptance of students for PhD
course depends on the party. "Not only it is necessary
to be a member of the party, but it is necessary to have
somebody inside the leadership supporting you". In Suleimania,
the office of democratic organisations controls all the
jobs in the trade unions. "Even the prime minister did
not choose his ministers", claims Nawshirwan Mustafa,
"the parties did -- fractions and blocs inside the parties".

Claiming that there
is a 100-fold difference between the highest salaries
and the lowest salaries in the government, the former
leader of Komala, a Maoist Kurdish organisation, observes :
"Our society is divided in two different classes... We
now have a very rich class and a very poor one in a society
of freedom fighters turned statesmen".

Asked
why the PUK did not nominate a candidate for the post
of prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government
last autumn, as agreed by KDP and PUK in their "strategic
agreement", and why the PUK accepted that the KDP's Nechirvan
Barzani remained prime minister", Nawshirwan Mustafa surprisingly
backs off and declines to comment: "I was one of the founders
of PUK in 1976, so I do not want to speak about some problems
I have some moral commitments".

He only volunteers,
"The people do not care who is prime minister. They want
someone who can provide services and social justice. The
people expected that after the unification of the Kurdish
PUK and KDP administrations, there would be change. But
there is no change".

"There is no opposition
in Kurdistan", mulls Nawshirwan Mustafa. "All the political
parties, big and small, participate in the government.
It was necessary to speak with one voice in Bagdad until
the Iraqi constitution was written. Now however the time
to speak up has come".

"Born in 1944, I joined
KDP in 1961, at the age of 17, when Jalal Talabani opened
the KDP legal office in Souleimania, under Qassem. We
are the lucky generation, we saw the victory and the freedom
of our country. Sheikh Mahmoud was banned from his home
town for 40 years. Sheikh Said and Qazi Mohammed were
hanged. General Barzani died in exile. We are the lords
of our country. But, he concludes, I do not want to be
like the emirates, I do not want Kurdistan to be a nation
of parasites."